The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for water removal in
multi-phase reactors operating at Fischer-Tropsch conditions. In a preferred embodiment
of the present invention, a method of reducing the concentration of water in a
multi-phase reactor for Fisher-Tropsch synthesis containing an expanded slurry
bed and a water-rich slurry region includes removing a portion of water from the
water-rich slurry from a predetermined region in the reactor, removing the water
from the water-rich slurry to form a water-reduced slurry, and returning the water-reduced
slurry back to the reactor. Preferably the water-rich slurry region is located
between H to H and R to R, where H is the height of the expanded
slurry bed and R is the radius of the expanded slurry bed.